


of brutal punches and breathless kisses

by orphan_account



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Boys Kissing, Broken Bones, Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Slow Burn, Violence, but the high school setting isnt that important, i just didnt want to write it in the buzzfeed offices, these characters will probably be very OOC
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-01
Updated: 2018-02-03
Packaged: 2019-03-12 04:03:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13539306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: i can’t tell if i want to punch you in your stupid face or kiss you until you’re breathless





	1. Chapter 1

Ryan Bergara was not the type of person to get irritated easily, no siree. He was opinionated, sure, but he was always respectful of the views of others -- even Brent’s, which was a real fucking challenge because the kid seemed determined to fight him on everything. Ryan was laid back, easy-going. He was _chill_. He knew what he liked, and he knew what he was going to do with his life, and so he stuck to that.

Shane Madej was the opposite of everything Ryan knew. He was tall, quiet, clumsy. Ryan shied away from the newness of it all, sticking to his comfort zone. He did this so well, in fact, that Shane had been in almost all of Ryan’s classes for just over three months before he even spoke a single word to the other, let alone having a proper conversation with him. When he finally did, though, to say it was infuriating would be the biggest understatement of the year, and it was only January.

“Brent, you’re just failing to see the clear evidence here-”, Ryan had started, pointing at the door opening, seemingly by itself, in the video that Andrew was playing on his phone. It was poorly lit, clearly shot at night, and Ryan could barely make out the framed photo of himself, Andrew, Adam, Steven and Sara on the wall, which he recognised to be the one from Steven’s house, not Andrew’s. Internally, he smiled at that implication.

“No, Ryan, _you’re_ failing to see _logic_ -”, Brent interjected, pushing his hands under his glasses to rub at his eyes in exasperation. Ryan rolled his own eyes in response -- he’d heard that line so many times before, and not only from Brent. It was a favourite of the skeptics, Ryan thought. He wondered if they had any other arguments than just “BUT LOGIC!”, which wasn’t even a good argument, in Ryan’s opinion, because everyone’s logic was different.

“I just thought it was cool”, Andrew protested, but the way that he said it let Ryan know that he knew exactly what kind of shit he was stirring with this kind of video. The shorter male scowled at the blond, who grinned toothily, humour glinting in his sharp eyes.

“The hinge is clearly just loose”. And those, ladies and gents, were the first proper words Ryan Bergara heard come from Shane Madej’s mouth (of course, Ryan had heard him answer questions and the like before in class, but nothing Shane had ever said had been directed specifically towards Ryan until this point). The former’s jaw dropped open, and he narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “My door did that, until I got the hinges fixed. It’s not a ghostie”. Even Brent was staring incredulously; Shane didn’t really talk much -- he spoke even less than Andrew, in fact -- so hearing him bust out three (or two and a half, Ryan pondered) full sentences in a row had them all feeling a bit… shaken. 

Ryan looked Shane over for a moment, and then back to the video. He glanced around Andrew, who was sat next to him, to stare at Brent, who was, in turn, staring at Shane. It was like a triangle of staring contests. Ryan considered this possibility for a moment, but it only made him more angry than Brent’s “logic” argument.

“I think, Madej, that you invited yourself into this conversation, and so I’d like to kindly request that you invite yourself right back fucking out of it”, Ryan deadpanned, looking at the video looping on Andrew’s screen one more time. He missed the way that Shane’s eyebrows rose, the way the corners of his mouth turned up into a smirk.

“Oh, that’s great, Bergara; you can’t see logic so you turn to insults”. Ryan opened his mouth to retaliate (the fucking “logic” argument again), but right at that moment, their teacher walked in late with a cheerful greeting, and the class fell silent. Ryan turned to face the front -- but only after shooting Shane a swift, piercing glare -- his blood boiling in his veins. Next to him, Andrew slid his phone under his pencil case, grinning mischievously.

So, no, Ryan did not get mad easily; however, there’s an exception to every rule, and Ryan’s exception was Shane Madej.

⚜

Shane was awake. The clock’s hands were rapidly approaching six a.m. and he hadn’t slept. Lights were flashing in front of his eyes in quick succession, and Shane was frozen awake to his bed. He wondered, for a moment, if he was experiencing sleep paralysis, but when he tried to lift his arm with too much force, he whacked the radiator, and firmly ruled that possibility out. He took a deep breath and sighed, forcing his lungs to take in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide. Shane was beyond tired; he had transcended that plane of existence and was now floating on his own, unreachable plane.

 _I’m going crazy_ , he thought to himself as he finally managed to pull himself out of bed and trudge to the shower. _First, I talk to Ryan Bergara after successfully not doing so for three months, and now I’m hallucinating UFO-style lights. Great._ Shane ran a hand through his hair as he waited for the water to warm up, glancing in the mirror. He moved his hand down to trace the stubble smattering across his jawline and wondered, briefly, if he should shave it off.

He, too, had been avoiding conversation with the shorter male, mainly because his friend Eugene had warned him about Ryan’s absurd obsession with the supernatural, and Shane wasn’t about that life. He might wear shirts that say “If aliens don’t exist then neither do I”, but that didn’t mean his beliefs extended into all things paranormal. In fact, his beliefs extended into _nothing_ paranormal. Everything that Shane believed was grounded in science, reality and normality (without the para- prefix). He only really thought of aliens as bacteria on other planets (though that wasn’t an option Sara was willing to accept whenever they debated the existence of extraterrestrial life), and he was in no way superstitious.

Shane, like Ryan, was a laid back guy. He was clumsy, mainly because he was about eight feet tall, and he was quiet, because he didn’t have a very dominating personality. Shane wasn’t exactly the epitome of masculinity, and he liked to keep to himself. He considered himself a very private person, and he was 100% fine with people not even knowing his middle name, which Sara had been trying to figure out since September. Shane thought that he could get along with Ryan’s friends -- mainly Andrew and Brent -- but not Ryan himself, so he stayed away from their little clique/friendship group all together.

Stepping into the shower, he sighed. The hot water did nothing to help with the thick blanket of drowsiness settling over the tall lad, but Shane couldn’t find it within himself to have a cold shower that early in the morning. He washed his hair thoroughly, trying to get his muscles working, hoping that that would aid in waking the rest of his body up. When he was dried off and had slung his towel around his hips, Shane felt like he was going to collapse on the bathroom floor. Instead of succumbing to that notion, however, he got himself dressed and was eventually on his way to school.

Upon his arrival to homeroom, Shane immediately noticed that Sara’s hair was bright blue, and also that she was joking around with Ryan Bergara. He groaned internally, because they were standing right next to Shane’s fucking desk. Well, it wasn’t necessarily his desk, because they didn’t have a seating plan, but it was where he always sat.

Reluctantly, Shane trudged over and swung his backpack onto his desk. Ryan took no notice of him, which is exactly how he expected events to unfold, but Sara did, and she gave him the brightest grin -- the type that the lead singer of Plain White T’s would say could light up New York City.

“Shane, come join our morning debate”, Sara chirped, her voice way too cheery for that early in the morning. The brown-haired boy shook his head, taking the water bottle from his bag and chugging half of it. Sara watched with amusement dancing in her eyes.

“No way, I’m too tired”.

“The ghoul in your attic keep you up again?”, Sara teased him, taking the water from his hands hand having some herself. Shane scowled and snatched his bottle back, shaking his head. He was about to reply to her when she turned to Ryan and began to speak again: “Shane’s totally got a ghost in his attic. I call it Kevin, but Eugene won’t stop calling it Keith. Shane calls it-”

“I call it bullshit, because it’s not a ghost, because ghosts don’t exist”, he cut in, zipping his bag up and putting it on the floor. Ryan and Sara rolled their eyes in unison, and the taller boy wanted to slam his head into a wall.

“Is it a ghoul, or a ghost? There’s a very clear difference”, Ryan stated matter-of-factly as he turned back to Sara. Shane resisted the petulant temptation to mock him, turning to find Eugene with a small smirk barely hidden on his features. 

When the bell rang, Shane slid into his seat behind Ryan and focused on the small of his neck instead of their homeroom tutor. He wondered what would happen if he threw an eraser at him, and then he shook the thought from his head. Turning to Sara, who was still grinning brightly, he realised he was in for a long day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if i dont continue this its because the depression™ got too bad but i really do want to because ive enjoyed this chapter so far


	2. Chapter 2

It was cold in Sara’s car, and the only sense of warmth came in irregular intervals when Eugene’s leg bumped against Shane’s. He sighed, running a hand through his hair and wondering why he had agreed to go to any kind of party, let alone one that Ryan was throwing. He didn’t know what Ryan’s house would look like, but he was assuming it was going to look as if it was decorated for Halloween 365 days a year. 

Sara’s car was basically scrap metal: it took about ten minutes for it to be able to drive at a speed over 20mph because of the engine; it stalled more times than someone who hadn’t done their homework who was talking to a teacher; the paint was peeling off; there were only three seats in the car that were technically safe to sit in because the other seats had springs jutting out of them; and it constantly smelled of burning rubber.

A horn shook Shane out of his thoughts, as Sara let out a string of curses from the front seat. He moved his leg off of the spring it had been forced on top of when Sara had swerved to narrowly miss someone trying (and failing) to merge in turn. He moved his head from where it was leaning against the window, reaching up to wipe condensation off of his cheek.

“Next time we go somewhere, we aren’t taking Sara’s car”, Keith’s voice sounded from behind Shane, who turned around to look at the man who was basically folded in half where he sat in the boot of the car. Swallowing a laugh, the man turned back to stare blankly out of the windscreen as Sara cussed Keith out for indirectly insulting her car. “This better be the party of the freakin’ year to make up for this hell”. Shane didn’t bother to hide his laugh then, wheezing as he swivelled his head to look at Keith again. Eugene grinned.

“I don’t know, but I’ll bet any of you anything that Bergara or one of his friends busts out the fucking Ouija board again”. Shane groaned, thumping his head against the window. “What’s up, Shaney, you don’t wanna talk to ghosts with Ryan?”

“Fuck off”.

⚜

Ryan swallowed from the bottle in his hand that Andrew given to him. It was some brown bottle marked with ‘Kopparberg’ and a fruit motif, which was fitting because it tasted like next-level fruit juice. He noticed that Andrew wasn’t even drinking whatever the hell he had given to Ryan; he was drinking Strongbow. The blonde must have noticed his eyebrow quirk up, because he gave a short laugh and clapped Ryan on the shoulder. Vaguely, he heard him tell him to enjoy himself, before he walked off to find Steven.

The party was already in full swing, and there was no sign of Sara anywhere. He’d invited her, but was waiting with trepidation to see which of her friends she had brought. He wondered if she was even coming as he settled against a wall, his eyes sweeping the room lazily. In the opposite corner to the one he stood in, Ryan could see Steven and Andrew leaning into each other suspiciously closely. He turned his gaze away, having another mouthful of the cider.

The music pounding in his ears made Ryan’s vision dance with bright spots. Shaking his head to clear them, Ryan reached up and scrubbed a hand over his face. He was excited for the party he was throwing -- he was expecting it to be a pretty good one, despite the fact that there was no elusive ‘special occasion’ that he was holding it for. January was rapidly coming to a close and Ryan wanted to celebrate the daylight hours gradually becoming longer with his friends.

A few drinks later -- some stronger and some not -- he finally saw Sara walk into the front room with Eugene, Keith and… _oh for fuck’s sake_. Ryan groaned to himself as he pushed off of the wall, deciding to greet them despite himself. He forced himself to ignore Shane steadily as he gave the group a simple ‘hey’, and let them know where the drinks were.

“Getting the Ouija board out?”, Eugene teased with sparkling eyes, and Ryan would normally have bristled at the joke, but he was slightly more relaxed in his half-inebriated state. He hadn’t touched an Ouija board since his last party and, fuck you Eugene, that party was on _Halloween_.

“If you’re so desperate, it’s in my room”, he jolted back, turning away to dissolve back into the general party crowd. He had just gotten back to his wall when he felt a presence next to him. Ryan nearly jumped out of his skin, but that was before he realised it was just Adam, with a preposition of something about ‘Andrew’s doing shots in the kitchen’. Ryan rolled his eyes, but he went to find the blonde boy anyway.

“Ryan! Join us!”, Andrew called out, holding up a bottle of Sourz to Ryan. The shorter man shook his head with a grin. “C’mon, Bergara, let’s get fucked up!”. Ryan rolled his eyes, the same grin still plastered on his face as he gave in. It wouldn’t have taken him much convincing anyway, but he was nothing if not determined to keep up appearances. 

Too many rounds of shots with Drew, Steve, Brent and some others whose names he couldn’t remember later, and Ryan was standing out in the garden, his head pressed against the wall as he swayed dangerously and sipped from some water that Sara had given him. She was such a good friend, he thought, and then realised he needed to tell her that immediately. Before he could gather the strength to stand up properly, however, the back door swung open and Shane stepped outside, unlit cigarette in his right hand.

Ryan looked up at the taller boy and considered his features for a moment. Even though he’d heard from Steven and Ned that the kid was a complete asshole (“but in a good way!” Ryan vaguely remembered Ned clarifying), he couldn’t help but find him at least a little bit attractive. Humming, he looked away and had a huge chug of his water. He was definitely too drunk if he was thinking those kind of things.

He already knew he was bisexual, he reasoned with himself. Finding other boys attractive wasn’t a new concept for him, so he was fine with that, but the fact that the boy happened to be _Shane_ was not, apparently. In his drunk state, Ryan wondered _why_ it wasn’t okay.

Suddenly, there was a hand on his shoulder and a voice much closer to him than he had expected anything to be that night:

“You’re going to fall over. Sit down”. It was Shane, Ryan’s brain registered that much. He hadn’t realised his eyes had closed until he opened them again, and he sat heavily on the cold ground. It was freezing outside. Shane sat next to him, a respectful distance away, as he smoked his cigarette. “Sara’s driving us home. She sent me out here to tell you, and I’m making the most of it”, he motioned with his cigarette before having another drag, “so she’ll see you at school”.

“I’ll see _you_ at school, too”, Ryan mumbled, confused. Shane nodded, not nearly as drunk as Ryan. “Thanks for not letting me fall over. Thanks for coming.”, he leaned his head back against the wall again, displaying his neck openly. In any other context, this action could have had a completely different meaning, Ryan realised. He wondered if Shane was thinking the same thing.

“Thanks for having us. Get inside soon or you’ll freeze out here”.

“M’kay. Bye.”, Ryan’s words were barely above a whisper, almost incoherent, because he was suddenly really tired. He closed his eyes again, snuggling into the wall. Beside him, he heard Shane sigh in annoyance. Ryan’s grip on the concept of time was slipping, so he wondered how long he was waiting before he listened to the taller boy’s footsteps as thudding away.

Eventually, Ryan did push himself up and go to bed, but only after having a nap outside and being scared alert by his neighbour’s dog -- not that he would tell anyone that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yooo look @ that i managed another part
> 
> something is probably gonna go down in the next chapter because im basically done worldbuilding now


End file.
